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Dota 2: How To Play With New Players

Are you ready to dive into Dota 2? Are you trying to talk your friends into a game? There are so many Dota 2 guide choices out there for new players that the world doesn’t need another (Try this one). Instead, this guide will look at the new player from the point of view of a more experienced player, and how to get the most from playing with new players and friends.

Play with your friend.

This one may seem obvious, but new players are easy targets. You may think the best way for your friend to learn the genre is to jump right in and swim without a lifeguard on duty. Don’t throw your friend to the wolves. While playing bot games is advised for a few rounds to get the hang of things, eventually a new player is going to want to get into a real game. It should be high priority to be in these games with the new player to offer constructive suggestions. This philosophy also ties in with several of the other suggestions here, including:

Lane with your friend.

This one is important. Joining a game with your friend and selecting your favorite support hero and sliding off to another lane is asking for trouble. The new player may end up being last pick if you don’t have a plan in place, and end up forced to mid or jungle.

If you’ve ever seen a new player attempt to play something like Sniper mid, it’s not pretty. However, contingencies like this are easily avoided if you plan to lane with your friend. Work out some hero possibilities before the game begins and avoid potential headaches. Keep things simple with heroes that have easy-to-land abilities that work well together, stay away from things like Invoker or skillshots.

Play someone new.

The new player has a lot to learn, and if you decide to play your best hero with a 70% win rate and then take a crushing loss, it’s probably going to be less fun for all involved. Play someone that you’re looking to improve with and not a hero that you “main” much. This will allow you to get something out of the game in the form of practice, and will make a loss less frustrating.

Communication!

Basic concepts like chasing down enemies after an initiation take time and practiced awareness to learn. While it may be obvious to you that the stun on an opposing lanemate was a signal to move in and use ability X Y and Z, your partner doesn’t know this. They may even turn around and run in situations that are clear opportunities after being harangued for “feeding” once or twice as they try to correct dying issues.

While it may seem excessive to have to say something like “Alright next time that guy at half health moves up I am going to use X, be ready to go in with Y”, it will improve the experience considerably.

Typing is unwieldy for the kind of quick communication necessary, so some sort of voice chat is recommended. Since it’s generally unwise to clog up the in-game voice chat with newbie tips, consider something like Skype, Ventrilo, Mumble, or Teamspeak.

Adjust expectations accordingly.

The new player isn’t always going to have a TP scroll (Or even worse, may adhere so rigidly to the “Always have a TP scroll” mantra by buying one at the beginning of the game!). The new player isn’t going to know what all of your abilities do or what most of the heroes in the game do.

The new player isn’t going to understand the importance of lane equilibrium, poking, denying, creep stacking and pulling, or anything else that you’ve probably accepted as standard gameplay. The new player will be in complete learning mode, and the best thing you can do is make the experience as comfortable as possible.

Relay more advanced concepts to the new player slowly so that they can sink in – This is the real challenge. A knowledge barrage isn’t going to stick and it’s only going to fluster someone still trying to figure out what to buy and what abilities to use. Don’t bother trying to go over more than one or two concepts a game, and just let them learn the basics of last hitting, their preferred hero’s attack animation, minimap awareness, etc. Stick to the basics, and invest for the long haul.

Have fun with it!

Bringing a friend into the action-RTS genre and Dota 2 can be daunting and a challenge. There’s an undeniable burden of knowledge placed on new players that only experience can change.

Giving new players the tools and environment they need to succeed can seem like a chore, but proper tactics, treatment, and the right attitude will go a long way toward making the uphill climb as smooth as possible. It’s also a much shorter route toward creating the kind of player you’ll want on your team than a pure trial by fire.

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I think this is a quite sound guide, but, to be frank, the MobA genre as a whole is the absolute worst to play as a beginner, specially if you don’t particularly have any friend to guide you in the early stages. In fact, I’d say having a friend (or a lot of luck) is practically a requirement to start playing DotA, LoL or anything of the sort.

People just plainly don’t want to play with beginners at all and will kick you whenever possible the vast majority of times (either when you tell you’re starting out, or if you don’t, when you get your third death or so).

I remember starting out in the Warcraft 3 DotA Map, and the and the first dozen matches or so were absolutely abysmal. I managed to get some people to play with in LAN parties and read out lots of guides before trying online again, but I pretty much avoided every other MobA since then, as I don’t really have the patience to deal with all that again. Too bad, since DotA was really fun.

Having also played since War3, I don’t disagree at all. I’ve seen exactly what you describe time and time again, which is why it’s essential for the new player to have understanding friends/teammates. It can be easy to forget what it was like being new to the game!

I started a few months before batrider/AA were introduced into the game. I can remember when I started out I would get 1 set of tangos and boots every match as starting items, classic noob. I would then go on to make 2 bracers, didn’t matter which character I was playing. I was lucky and did have a friend to play, however he hadn’t played since the days of siege engine and summoning pudge. So he was able to give me some basic pointers and we could learn together from there.

It literally takes months to become average at Dota. However, once you get the hang of it. No other game offers the strategy, teamwork, and satisfaction.

Good advice overall. Only thing I would add is to control your emotions. The historic first instinct of Dota is to blame/yell. When introducing a friend to Dota, nothing will test your patience (or even friendship at times) more. If things are getting out of hand, the atmosphere can get down right brutal if you do not take a step back, take a breath and control your emotions.

Once your friend gets past that initial newbie stage (after you have raised your expectations of them). It can be very easy to release your frustrations out on them when a match isn’t going your way. Which isn’t fun or fair to anyway.

I would add to this: watch Purge’s guides to the heros and watch some pro games, especially those with BuRning (for carries), Light of Heaven and AA for Offlane and support. Practice last hitting with bots, especially on hard and insane modes. Avoid some of the harder hero’s like TA, Invoker, ect. Also keybind your items, especially if your mouse has side buttons– it really helps.